Category: reflections

12/365 freedom

12/365
12/365
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

freedom

i am not for sale.
you are not for sale.
no one should be for sale.

trafficking is…
to be taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into
slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses,
sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm
labour, domestic servitude. 80% of all victims are women and girls,
50% are children.

trafficking is…
where family members and friends deceive parents to release their
CHILDREN or SELL them FOR AS LITTLE AS $20 EACH, selling
them on to local gangmasters or serious organised international
trafficking rings.

trafficking is…
growing. 2–4 MILLION men, women and children are TRAFFICKED
across borders and within their own country EVERY YEAR. more
than one PERSON is trafficked across borders EVERY MINUTE,
which is equivalent to five JUMBO JETS every day. a trade that
earns twice as much worldwide revenue as Coca Cola.

trafficking is…
where victims usually suffer repeated physical abuse, fear, torture
and threats to families to break their spirits and turn them into
saleable commodities. a person can be sold and trafficked
many times.

www.notforsalecampaign.org
www.stopthetraffik.org

God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

A chat with @existentialpunk

adele

I had a great chat with @existentialpunk today (aka Adele) via direct messages on Twitter. I approached her via DM about the chat and I think we were both a little confused on whether we would continue on DM or on the public site. Either way we were asked later about our conversation and she agreed to allow me to share it on my blog.

I’ve had a great time getting to know Adele and this was just another step in that direction.

She describes herself on her blog like so::

My name is Adele and “i am thomas, doubter. i am judas, betrayer. i am nicodemus, reluctant in the night. i am st. john of the cross, soul darkened by love. i am a christian. i am not.” i am also “lost, wicked, and depraved but redeemed by the grace and beauty of God.”

i am a traveler who currently resides in Richmond, VA with my partner and love of my life, Katryna, and our two dawgs, Lady Dalmation, and Mushu, our Tibetan Spaniel. i am currently going through long-term treatment for Chronic Lyme Disease, other tick borne diseases, and heavy metal toxicity.

You’ll also realize quickly that she’s homosexual and not ashamed to admit that or that she’s a very proud Christian as well. Some may see that as an impossible match, others will appreciate the honesty. Some will agree with one of us, others may not agree with either of us. Either way, I hope you’ll take a little time to read the conversation below and get to know and understand her and others a bit better.

As one final note, this of course was copied from a conversation from Twitter – which of course means each response was limited to 140-characters and some messages crossed paths as well. So while it may look lengthy, there’s probably not much that’s very profound, but I hope its a starting point for our conversation to continue and for others to begin.

Jdblundell: id love to talk more about your ideas via twitter replies (public). we’ll disagree on things im sure about
JB: but id like a better understanding and hopefully find a stronger common ground about
ExistentialPunk: that would be fantastic. i don’t mind disagreements as long as their is kindness and respect. i suspect that from you! 🙂
JB: i’d hope they all come in grace and kindness and if not – call me on it!
EP: Thnx for expressing this to me! 🙂
EP: i will as you do the same for me!
JB: do you believe that all homosexuals are born as homosexuals? do some choose to live that way?
EP: i believe both born and environmental. i do not believe we choose anymore than u choose to be straight!
JB: well that’s not a public reply 🙂 would you prefer dm?
EP: i replied i thought dm. sorry. i am an open book so either is ok with me.
JB: yeah you replied via Direct Message. which is fine with me. can you expound on “environmental”.
EP: environmental i mean having a safe and supportive environment to come out. i did not for many years and finallly did!
JB: so folks can’t don’t choose to be one way or the other?
EP: i do not believe that. i believe also we live on a kinsey scale and sexuality can be fluid. 1 person can be totally straight, 1 can b gay
EP: and others can fall in the middle. 1 can be attracted to either sex. It. for me, is about relationship and how we love.
JB: makes sense. i can understand that view. not sure im there yet (agree totaly) but i understand it.
JB: my command regardless is to love all as Christ as loved me. what response do you have 4 Xians who say your ignoring Scripture?
EP: i say they cherry pick as well and misinterpret scripture by not giving heed to historical & cultural contexts. Usually we go in circles.
EP: i come to a place of agreeing to disagree. All have a right to their opinions/beliefs. If someone will be mean or hurtful to me i stop
EP: stop talking to them cuz i just get mad and hurt. Not healthy. Open dialogue like we r having is great. It took me a long time to get here &
EP: i have yet to arrive. i hold my beliefs loosely in that i could be wrong but this is how i am living cuz 4 so long i did not live. i amhappy
JB: i can c that. find it interesting that folks used to say u were born gay as a way to dismiss – now they say you choose as way to dismiss
EP: peeps like to twist things to their pov! i think as humans we all do this!
EP: peeps don’t have to agree with me. i just want to b treated fairly, equally, and with love. Isn’t that what Jesus is all
JB: agreed. im very careful to ever claim to understand God fully or know him totally. this podcast was helpful :: http://ck83d.th8.us
JB: and i think its totally different when you put a name and a face to any issue. hard to dismiss the homeless when you know one of them about
JB: hard to dismiss illegal immigrants when you know one of them. hard to dismiss LGBT when you know one of them.
EP: Pete Rollins is a very good friend of mine. i will give this a listen later!
EP: ooops, not the podcast with Pete Rollins you meant. i will listen to BOTH! 🙂
EP: Give me some history b4 i listen.
JB: well the podcast is with E Scott Jones – they just refer to the Peter Rollins interview (which is also very good)
JB: the E Scott Jones interview was a followup to a lecture he gave at Wake Forest. Hes a homosexual minister in OKC
JB: one of the hosts of the show (@chadcrawford) is a good friend of mine from college.
JB: do you think the marriage issue would “go away” if the govt quit giving special rights to married folks all together?
EP: i am for calling ALLcivil unions and those who want to get married in a church, gay or straight, can IF church wants to. You get over 1100
EP: federal rights being a heterosexual who is allowed to marry. We married in CA and r in legal limbo & have NOFederal rights. DOMAkeeps our
EP: marriage from being recognized in other states if the state does not have gay marriage legal. Marriage for straights and civil unions make
EP: gays separate but equal.
EP: Not all states offer us civil unions and those that do vary on the rights. We have to pay for attorneys to file legal paperwork that comes 2
EP: you as a married staright couple naturally and legally! i blog about all this stuff!
JB: i think i agree with you. Civil Unions for the feds and marriage for churches to choose who they marry or wont. dont force a church to.
JB: and like you said – civil unions for everyone. not just LGBT. no special fed rights for being married.
EP: YES! That was the lie about Prop 8 that churches would be forced to marry gays and be in trouble for preaching against it. Why Rick Warren
EP: pick by Obama hurt our community so much. It felt like a slap in the face when we were already knocked down by prop 8 passage.
JB: gotcha. well i was reading Gen 15-23 today and thought i’d chat with you a bit about my questions. thanks for sharing!
EP: anytime and THANK YOU for making the time to get to know me! 🙂
JB: sure thing! i hope we can get you on our podcast sometime soon. i think thomas may be contacting you about it b4 too long
JB: and keep that promise. if i say things not in love or grace about anyone – call me on it!
EP: COOL! i would love to contribute! Thomas has become a dear friend who has ALWAYSbeen loving and inclusive to me. We have never met in person
EP: YET! He is a lovely guy and also love his wife too. How did you 2 get connected?
JB: we “met” back in 05 or 06 through our blogs and found numerous common interests and just continued our friendship
EP: Cool! We met same way about 3 or 4 years ago. What a neat soul!
JB: yes. and if you can get that interview with Rollins or have other things you’d like to submit for our podcast feel free
EP: will do! Thanks!

Thanks again to Adele for taking the time to share and your willingness to chat! Look forward to carrying on the conversation!

Slow to reject

…as Faenza likes to tell his staff, the more times a person has been in jail, been arrested or beaten up, the more welcome he will be at the center.

“We want this place to be very slow to reject anybody,” Faenza says. “You don’t have to be likable to deserve services. You can be aggravating and annoying and still deserve services….They are not going to act grateful. But you can’t lecture. You can’t coerce. You can’t shame people.”

This comes from a story about The Bridge – a homeless shelter in Dallas. I hope my home, my community group, my tribe, my communities of faith are the same way. I would hate to know a homeless shelter is more welcoming than the Body of Christ.

United as ONE

Last week Peter Rollins wrote (in the spirit of the Apostle Paul)::

You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither high church nor low church, Fox nor CNN, citizen not alien, capitalist nor communist, gay nor straight, beautiful nor ugly, East nor West, theist nor atheist, Israel nor Palestine, hawk nor dove, American nor Iraqi, married nor divorced, uptown nor downtown, terrorist nor freedom fighter, paedophile nor loving parent, priest nor prophet, fame nor obscurity, Christian nor non-Christian, for all are made one in Christ Jesus. (ht: Existentialpunk)

Today, Thomas shared thoughts on Unity vs Uniformity in our tribes and communities of faith.

I believe wholeheartedly in the “ones” in this passage (Eph 4:1-16):

  • one body
  • one Spirit
  • one hope
  • one Lord
  • one faith
  • one baptism
  • one God and Father of all… who is over all and through all and in all.

This is unity… but this doesn’t demand uniformity. The very passage speaks of having different giftings… we are gifted with different things so that we can make a stronger WHOLE than the SUM OF OUR PARTS.

We are all different. We all have different experiences… different baggage… different tastes and preferences and worldviews. This diversity makes the collective whole stronger.

He continued, saying that our communities of faith should not be melting pots where everything is thrown out and the end result is goop, but instead we should be salads — where everything is put together to add value and unique flavor and nutrition.

A carrot by itself is OK but add it with spinach or lettuce and tomatoes and you get a tasty salad. Throw in a few nuts (like most of our communities of faith have :-)) and you have WOW! All the flavors blend together as one.

Perhaps this is why Jesus prayed for the generations of Christ followers that would come after him ::

I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me. – John 17:20-23

I hope that in all my communities of faith I offer spaces of grace. Where the labels are shed at the door and a space is created where everyone is equal, regardless of where they are in their walk, regardless of what bounded set they find themselves in, regardless how far they are from the center point as long as we’re all helping draw one another to the True Center Point.

11/365


11/365
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

walk by faith

We were challenged this morning to face our giants. To face the areas in our lives that are keeping us from taking the next step with God.

Brian pointed out five giants we face. I think I could use some help against each giant.

fully surrender
intentional relationships
caring for others
personal responsibility
leadership

I’m looking forward to seeing where God takes all of us over the next year.

Will I believe you when you say
Your hand will guide my every way
Will I receive the words You say
Every moment of every day

Well I will walk by faith
Even when I cannot see
because this broken road
Prepares Your will for me

Help me to rid my endless fears
You’ve been so faithful for all my years
With the one breath You make me new
Your grace covers all I do

Well I’m broken- but I still see Your face
Well You’ve spoken- pouring Your words of grace

-walk by faith
jeremy camp

10/365


10/365
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

achtung yall

In 1991 (or maybe 92) I was given my first CD player/boombox for Christmas, and the first CD I purchased was U2’s One single. I wore that CD out – as well as the Achtung Baby album.

My friends and I were just getting into U2 for the first time and loving every bit of it. As soon as we saw pictures and video of Bono walking on stage during the opening bars of Zoo Station, doing his "Bono dance" (as we called it) we imitated it profusely.

We did this dance/walk/pose over and over again in pictures, videos or just walking down the street. I couldn’t tell you why, but we thought it was cool.

For some reason while trying to get a picture today Zoo Station came back in my head — hence the picture.

Otherwise a pretty uneventful day — took the Christmas lights down, took an elliptical machine to the thrift store and took our old washer to a scrap yard — apparently thrift stores don’t like em.

I also wrestled with holding on to things too tightly and making the mistake of taking those same things for granted — a mistake I probably make more than I’d like to admit.

But maybe that’s what Zoo TV was all about. Mocking the excess and challenging us to consider what really matters.

Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass

Looking forward to the bands new album, No Line on the Horizon. We’ll see where the band challenges us to go next.